From Publishers Weekly
It is a testament to the depth of New York Yankee history that a sportswriter, albeit a very good one, can profile 18 people connected to the team's past and deliver an absorbing story that traces much of the team's story through the eyes of the men who were there. Madden's goal, to capture as much of the team's past as possible, led him to Marius Russo, one of the last players alive to play with Yankee legend Lou Gehrig. The chapter on Russo, as well as on other Yankee old-timers Tommy Byrne and Charlie Silvera, are especially enjoyable since they shed light on the pre- WWII Yankees, while bringing attention to three players who are not generally known by most fans. Madden (coauthor of Zim) writes with affection about each player, with an understanding of each one's place in Yankee lore. His choice to include Arlene Howard, widow of Elston Howard, the first African-American to play for the Yankees, is inspired, as it allows Madden to bring to life the difficulties Howard had in breaking the Yankee color line. One weakness: since many of the profiles are of men who were part of either Stengel's Yankees or the Bronx Zoo teams of the mid-1970s, Madden must repeat the highlights of those years in several different chapters. But this is a minor quibble, and Yankee fans will enjoy the perspective of what it was like to be young and a Yankee in a number of different eras.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Veteran sportswriter Bill Madden of the NY Daily News adds a standout in the current flood of books commemorating the New York Yankees' one-hundredth anniversary. In 18 interviews with former Yankee players or family members--starting with Phil Rizzuto and ending with Paul O'Neill--Madden asks the simple question in the title and gets some wonderful answers, which he reports with grace and wit. Each chapter begins with a photograph of the interviewee now. These are elegant and revealing images: Arlene Howard, widow of Elston, with his MVP award; Bobby Richardson with his Bible. Madden gets recalcitrant former manager Ralph Houk to talk, and he can hardly get the irrepressible Joe Pepitone to shut up. He also gets a warm and personal interview from Charlie Silvera, who was the backup catcher for Yogi Berra for five world championship seasons, and from Ron Bloomberg, the first notable Jewish Yankee and the very first DH ever. There's both pride and pathos in his interview with Donnie Baseball, Don Mattingly, who never won a world championship, and even more of the same with Paul O'Neill, who says he got more out of being Donnie's teammate than from anything else in his time as a Yankee. This one's a keeper. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
